The Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 is designed to be used by anyone, and you can customize the Tab 4 for your level of usability. This article discusses a variety of Tab 4 accessibility settings for the screen, sound, mobility, and controlling interactions.

From the author of

From the author of

You can modify the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 to work the way that’s most usable for you including changing how you view the screen, what sounds you hear on the Tab 4, and how you interact with the device. The Accessibility settings list within the Settings screen allows you to make changes to the screen, determine if the Tab 4 talks to you, change colors and fonts on the screen, change how you hear sound, and change how you control device interactions.

Open the Accessibility settings list by tapping the Apps icon in the Home screen and then tap Settings in the Apps screen. Within the Settings screen, tap Device in the blue menu bar at the top of the screen. Open the Accessibility settings list shown in Figure 1 by tapping the Accessibility option in the settings list.

Figure 1. The Accessibility settings list appears on the right side of the screen.

The Accessibility settings list is divided into six sections. The top of the list shows the Auto-Rotate Screen checkbox is checked; this means that when you rotate the device, the screen repositions itself so you can continue to read the screen clearly. You can turn off this feature by tapping the Auto-Rotate Screen checkbox. You know the feature is off when the checkbox is clear.

By default, the screen turns off after 10 minutes of inactivity. You can change this interval by tapping Screen Timeout in the list and then select the interval in the Screen Timeout window shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. You can cancel changes to the screen timeout interval by tapping the Cancel button.

Tap the button to the right of the screen timeout interval that you want, from 15 seconds to 30 minutes. Note that you can’t turn off screen timeout, which is a good thing because if the screen is on too long then you not only lose battery life, but the screen can also become damaged.

If you need to hear characters in your password, you can have the Tab 4 speak password characters as you enter them by tapping the Speak Passwords checkbox. You should take care when using this feature to ensure that no one else can hear your password as you type.

When you see an alarm or calendar event on the screen, you can clear the screen more easily by tapping the Single Tap Mode checkbox. After you tap this checkbox and see an event on the screen, you can close the alarm or calendar event just by tapping once on the screen.

You can access the Accessibility settings list more easily by tapping the Show Shortcut button. After you tap this button, then every time you press and hold the power button to view the Device Options window (so you can perform system tasks such as power off the Tab 4) you’ll see the Accessibility option in the window menu. Go directly to the Accessibility settings list by tapping the Accessibility option.

Once you have the accessibility settings the way you want them, you may want to save them as a file or even share your accessibility settings with another device such as an Android smartphone. You can save and share your accessibility settings by tapping Manage Accessibility and then select one of the three options in the Manage Accessibility list shown in Figure 3:

Export: You can export your settings as a file to either the Tab 4 device or onto an SD card.

Update: If you want to update your accessibility settings, you can import the saved settings file, update your settings, and then re-export the file. You can import the file from the Tab 4 or from an SD card.

Share Via: You can share the settings file through your Dropbox account, a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi Direct connection to another device, or in an email message through your Email or Gmail account.

When you import or share a file, the My Files app appears on the screen so you can find the file in the Accessibility folder. If you decide that you want to return to the Accessibility settings list without exporting, importing, or sharing a settings file, press the Back button.

Services

Within the Services section, you can have the Tab 4 provide you with spoken feedback in response to what you touch and/or activate on the screen using the TalkBack app. After you tap TalkBack in the Services section, you can turn on TalkBack by sliding the Off button to On in the blue menu bar shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. The Off slider button appears in the blue menu bar at the top of the screen.

After you start the TalkBack app, a window appears that asks you to confirm that you want to use TalkBack. You can then start using the Tab 4 as you normally would and you’ll hear the standard voice. The first time you hear the voice from the Tab 4, you’ll see a window that asks you if you want to download a high quality voice file; you can download the file by tapping the OK button in the window. If you would rather use the standard voice file, double-tap the Cancel button.

Note that when TalkBack is on, you’ll also have to use different tapping and movement features to get around the screen. For example, you’ll have to double-tap buttons and use two fingers to scroll down the list of settings on the left side of the Settings screen.